10:28 AM EDT, 07/25/2024 (MT Newswires) -- Southwest Airlines ( LUV ) said Thursday that it will assign seats and offer premium seating options with extended legroom on its flights, shifting from its open seating model for more than 50 years.

Southwest ( LUV ) also said it is adding 24-hour operation capabilities with the introduction of overnight, redeye flights.

The company said it expects redeye flying and continued reductions in turn-time to provide incremental revenue and cost savings, enabling it to fund nearly all new capacity over the next three years without incremental aircraft capital deployment.

Shares of Southwest Airlines ( LUV ) were up over 2% in recent trading.

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